The power of television should never be underestimated. As Kris Boyd celebrated a lucky 13th goal in Rangers colours against Kilmarnock, the striker jabbed a finger towards the main stand at Rugby Park.

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The striker had a mixed afternoon yesterday, missing a penalty, slamming a 25-yard shot against the bar and bemoaning the denial of a second spot-kick.

Like all the true predators, however, Boyd has a neck as red as the jerseys Rangers wore. Any embarrassment he may have contained at his wastefulness was broken down by a ruthless second half when Rangers demolished some dogged resistance from the toothless home team.

David Weir broke down the barriers, heading Rangers into the lead from a set-piece five minutes into the second period.

Four minutes later, Boyd once again gave Jim Jefferies cause to curse the day he accepted a mere £400,000 for his services, thumping Kenny Miller's fine cross-field pass under Alan Combe's body.

By the time of Miller's sixth goal for the club in 87 minutes - a header from Steven Davis' cross - and an injury-time hooked effort from substitute Steven Whittaker, the game had ceased to be a contest.

Only the sight of Kevin Thomson being stretchered from the field soiled a quietly effective afternoon in Ayrshire for a Rangers side which once again narrowed the gap on Celtic to two points.

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That's more like it: Boyd gets on the scoresheet

'We had so many chances and I was just delighted to get on the scoresheet in the second half and run out comfortable winners,' said Boyd later. 'Better players than me have missed a penalty and stepped up again - and I will do it again.

'I've scored a number of penalties and I'll continue to take them.'

Walter Smith was something close to underwhelmed by his team in the first half. Pressed once again to tackle suspicions that he, too, has never truly appreciated Boyd's talents, the Rangers manager was unequivocal.

'Kris had a miss from 12 yards and battered the bar from 25 yards. It's all there. He will probably take the next penalty. He won't ask me, he'll probably just take it. We all miss them, don't we?'

The penalty miss actually served to ignite the game following a turgid opening 28 minutes.

Thomson chipped a pass into the lurking Boyd who, with his back to goal, went down under challenge from Grant Murray.

However, Boyd's no-nonsense, straight-down-the-middle approach to scoring from 12 yards failed to wrong-foot former team-mate Combe.

The Killie goalkeeper held his ground long enough to parry the ball up and over the bar to grant Kilmarnock a reprieve.

For the remainder of the half, Boyd took his failure personally. There was nothing Combe could do when Boyd thumped a free-kick touched short by Davis against the crossbar from fully 25 yards.

When the brilliance of Pedro Mendes picked out Nacho Novo in 36 minutes, however, the little Spaniard's low effort rebounded from the base of Combe's left-hand post and caused the keeper a moment of flapping anxiety before the danger was snuffed out.

Three minutes later came a greater let-off for Killie, Boyd dodging an offside claim to drift in on goal one on one. Combe looked favourite to reach the ball first - and did so before dropping it.

Once more, Boyd looked to be hauled to the ground in a desperate clamour by home players to avert the concession of an opening goal.

In a decent position to judge for himself, referee Eddie Smith decided against awarding the away support the second penalty kick they so demanded.

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Leading by example: Skipper David Weir celebrates scoring Rangers' opener

Some will take some convincing he got it right.

'That was more clear-cut than the first one,' Boyd insisted. 'I'm tapping the ball in the net for the second one but, for some reason, it wasn't given. It was a penalty but Alan swiped the leg away from me and got away with it.'

It wasn't all one-way traffic, although it ran close. All this at a time when Rangers were less than firing on all cylinders.

Kilmarnock never looked capable of wrenching a stretch from Allan McGregor, let alone a goal.

By the time Conor Sammon replaced Donovan Simmonds deep into the second period to add some weight to the front line, the game was lost.

David Fernandez, engaged in an unarmed war of attrition with Madjid Bougherra, shook off his marker long enough to feed Willie Gibson a useful shooting chance in 14 minutes, the midfielder slashing the ball viciously wide.

It may, in truth, have been the only time Bougherra put a foot wrong all day.

Regrouping his players at the interval, Jefferies emphasised the need to weather a sure-fire thunderstorm of Rangers possession in the opening moments of the second period.

They responded by conceding twice in the opening nine minutes, a source of enormous frustration to the Killie manager.

His side somehow allowed Weir to squeeze a header in from Thomson's pacey corner in 50 minutes.

Then, four minutes later, the erratic Gibson surrendered possession in the Rangers half, allowing Broadfoot to feed Miller on the right flank.

The striker produced a stunning arched pass to pick out Boyd and, at the fourth time of asking, the forward drove the ball fiercely under Combe's body and into the net.

For Kilmarnock, there was resistance but precious little else. Four g oals mildly flattered Rangers, yet reflected the punchless nature of the home team.

Minus Manuel Pascali, David Lilley and Simon Ford, Killie's second-half defending was described by a clearly disgruntled Jefferies as 'very poor'.

The loss of Jamie Hamill with a bad ankle injury was a further blow.

On the aforementioned Setanta, former Celtic striker John Hartson tipped the Ayrshire side to lose 10 goals to the equally afflicted Celtic on Wednesday.

An exaggeration, of course, yet a possible sign of what lies ahead.

For Rangers, Smith handed Barry Ferguson the final half-hour to hone his fitness further.

Thomson's 85th-minute injury, television pictures showing a heavy blow from the falling Fernandez, made the move an unexpectedly wise one.